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National law and policies on minimum ages – Barbados

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

 

Source: Initial report: CRC/C/3/Add.45, 11 February 1997
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
27. The Education Act 1981 (chap. 41) provides for a coordinated and effective system of public education related to the needs of the people of Barbados. In this Act, a child is defined as “a person under the age of sixteen (16) years” (sect. 2 (1)). Consequently, section 2 (1) affirms that compulsory school age means any age between 5 and 16 years.
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
28. The Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1977 (chap. 346) makes provisions regarding the employment of persons, referred to as “child” and “young person”. Section 2 states that a child is “a person under the age of fifteen (15) years while section 2 (d) defines a young person as “a person who is at least fifteen (15) years of age but under the age of eighteen (18) years”.
29. This definition of a young person is further supported by the Factories Act (chap. 347), which was passed to revise and consolidate the Law relating to factories and the safety, health and welfare of persons employed therein. Section 2 of that Act defines a “young person” as one who has attained the age of 15 years but is under the age of 18.
31. From the above, one can infer that the legal minimum age at which an individual may be employed is after the attainment of his/her sixteenth birthday or the completion of compulsory school age. This inference was made because compulsory school age ceases at age 16. A person of 15 years may be employed outside of school hours (sect. 2).
 
Minimum age for marriage
34. The minimum legal age at which a person may enter into marriage is 16 years. The Marriage Act (chap. 218 (A)), states that: “a marriage solemnized between persons either of whom is under the age of sixteen (16) is void” (sect. 4). “However, where one of the persons intending to marry is over sixteen (16) years but under eighteen (18) years a parent or lawfully appointed guardian's consent is required, and in the absence of the consent of the above-mentioned parties the Court may dispense with such consent on the application to the Court by either party” (sect. 26).
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
37. The Juvenile Offenders Act (chap. 138) addresses the issue of criminal liability. In this Act, the age of criminal responsibility is fixed at age seven years. Below this age a child is considered, in law, to be incapable of committing a crime. In addition to the age requirement, the court must be satisfied that the child has sufficient mental capacity to commit the crime.
 
Source: Initial report: CRC/C/3/Add.45, 11 February 1997